So this is the reply I got from Kobo Rakuten:
Quote:
件名
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Kobo Customer Care
これまでのスレッド
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回答 Eメール経由(Eisuke Isaka) - 2014年01月21日 10:53
Dear Brendan
Thank you very much for your inquiry.
We would like to answer to your question.
Since your purchased is completed in the address in USA, it might not be able to access Kobo eBook Store in Japan,
Though, there is a possibility to be able to log in and use your account from the US by logging in from the log in with Rakuten ID.
You may also be able to access to the Kobo store in Japan with the IP address of the abroad.
However, Kobo offers service for multiple countries, and there is a limitation due to local laws,
so even if it is possible to access Kobo store in Japan, Kobo Customer Care Japan is not able
to support for overseas matters officially. Please excuse us in advance for your understanding.
After understanding that overseas support is not official, you may able to try following the steps bellow.
Access to http://rakuten.kobobooks.com/ in your browser, and if you are logged in, please log out.
1. Access to "Rakuten Ichiba" http://www.rakuten.co.jp/
and log in with your Rakuten ID, after that click to "Rakuten Member Management".
Please ensure Rakuten ID is registered address in Japan.
If it is not, please register an address in Japan.
2. Please delete browser cache, also the history.
3. Close the browser once, and restart browser again.
Please access to http://rakuten.kobobooks.com/.
4. Instead of "Log in to Kobo" Please click the icon of the left side "Cannot find usual Log in way?"
5. When you see the icon of "R" appears, please log in with Rakuten ID.
6. After the Login, click "My Account" then "Payment Information" tab,
Please input the "address of Japan" and save it.
If you have done the steps until here, books in Japanese should be displayed.
If display site is mixed Japanese and English, please note that the circumstances is due to the IP address.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
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Kobo Customer Care
http://rakuten.kobobooks.com/help
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Oh, what a cluster! I had no idea it was going to be this difficult. I thought maybe, the company that is in charge of the whole thing could just go into your account and flip the settings to whatever country they wanted to but I guess not. I'm contacting the regular Kobo people now to see if they can do any better.
Let this be a warning for all people in Japan with Kobo accounts. Don't try switching your address to anywhere else because you won't be able to switch back!
Assuming that I am stuck with a non-Japanese account, how is the agency pricing thing going on on the US? Normally I would be overjoyed at having a US account as their prices are usually cheaper but I found that some of the books I tried to use coupons on wouldn't allow me to do so, probably due to the whole agency thing. In Japan, the coupons work on everything which is why I want to switch back. Are things changing in the US?
If not, does anyone know of another country that has cheap prices like the US but also allows you to use coupons on all the books?